Apple's iOS mobile operating system rocketed past the open source Linux this summer to become the third most popular Web browsing platform on the Internet.

A new release from Web traffic firm Net Applications has revealed that iOS share overtook Linux in July, when it represented 1.06 percent of all Web traffic, verus the 0.93 share of Linux. Apple's mobile platform grew even more in August, when it represented 1.13 percent, compared to a shrinking share for Linux, down to 0.85 percent.

For perspective, Linux's share more than doubled the total iOS Web browsing presence last November, when Apple's platform was used for 0.43 percent of traffic, versus the 1 percent share held by Linux at the time.

Net Applications recently changed its methods to categorize iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices under the iOS umbrella. With the newly revised reporting, the firm discovered that the total number of iOS devices has exceeded Linux.

iOS is now the third most popular Web browsing platform in the world, behind only Apple's Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows. To top Mac OS X, it has a ways to go, as version 10.5 has a 1.73 percent share, and the latest version, 10.6, is responsible for 2.59 percent of all Web traffic.

In comparison, Google's Android mobile operating system accounted for 0.2 percent of all Web traffic in the month of August, up from 0.18 percent in July. Android has seen a steady increase in Web presence since it was a minuscule 0.02 percent in October 2009.

In July, Net Applications found that the iPad had passed Google Android in total browser usage share. The iPad alone -- just one of the three iOS-based devices that Apple sells -- took 0.17 percent of all Web browser traffic after just three months on the market.

At Wednesday's keynote, Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs revealed his company had shipped more than 120 million iOS devices since the iPhone first launched in 2007. He also revealed that the company is activating a little over 230,000 iOS devices per day, with new activations only.

iOS is now the second most popular Web browsing platform in the world, behind only Apple's Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows. To top those, Mac OS X, it has a long way to go, as version 10.5 has a 1.73 percent share, and the latest version, 10.6, is responsible for 2.59 percent of all Web traffic.

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This is pure gobbledegook. WTF are they even trying to say? The first use of "second" is clearly just a stupid error, but the rest of the paragraph is incomprehensible. The unclear antecedents alone are the mark of an amateurish writer.

And is it really true that all apple products put together generate <5% of all web traffic? Huh?

Apple's iOS mobile operating system rocketed past the open source Linux this summer to become the third most popular Web browsing platform on the Internet.

A new release from Web traffic firm Net Applications has revealed that iOS share overtook Linux in July, when it represented 1.06 percent of all Web traffic, verus the 0.93 share of Linux. Apple's mobile platform grew even more in August, when it represented 1.13 percent, compared to a shrinking share for Linux, down to 0.85 percent.

For perspective, Linux's share more than doubled the total iOS Web browsing presence last November, when Apple's platform was used for 0.43 percent of traffic, versus the 1 percent share held by Linux at the time.

Net Applications recently changed its methods to categorize iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices under the iOS umbrella. With the newly revised reporting, the firm discovered that the total number of iOS devices has exceeded Linux.

iOS is now the second most popular Web browsing platform in the world, behind only Apple's Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows. To top those, Mac OS X, it has a long way to go, as version 10.5 has a 1.73 percent share, and the latest version, 10.6, is responsible for 2.59 percent of all Web traffic.

In comparison, Google's Android mobile operating system accounted for 0.2 percent of all Web traffic in the month of August, up from 0.18 percent in July. Android has seen a steady increase in Web presence since it was a minuscule 0.02 percent in October 2009.

In July, Net Applications found that the iPad had passed Google Android in total browser usage share. The iPad alone -- just one of the three iOS-based devices that Apple sells -- took 0.17 percent of all Web browser traffic after just three months on the market.

At Wednesday's keynote, Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs revealed his company had shipped more than 120 million iOS devices since the iPhone first launched in 2007. He also revealed that the company is activating a little over 230,000 iOS devices per day, with new activations only.

How will they kill Flash if so few people browse the web with Apple products?

Because Apple products have disproportionate representation. When a lot of the early adopters, younger folks, and high-level executives (ie. the people who spend money) are the ones using it, do you really want your ads and services in an unsupported format?

This is pure gobbledegook. WTF are they even trying to say? The first use of "second" is clearly just a stupid error, but the rest of the paragraph is incomprehensible. The unclear antecedents alone are the mark of an amateurish writer.

And is it really true that all apple products put together generate <5% of all web traffic? Huh?

If you are going to misquote the original article, try to wait till there have been some other posts, so that your misrepresentation isn't so obvious. Altering AI's statement, then criticizing your own version, is the sign of an asinine critic.

If you are going to misquote the original article, try to wait till there have been some other posts, so that your misrepresentation isn't so obvious. Altering AI's statement, then criticizing your own version, is the sign of an asinine critic.

How will they kill Flash if so few people browse the web with Apple products?

Because iOS's web browser account for more than 30% of mobile browsing market, which is large and getting larger by the minute. Everyone want to develop for mobile market to maintain relevance. Since iOS account for a huge chunk of mobile market, you don't want to develop your product that can't be seen by that huge chunk. And you don't want to do things twice by developing one non-flash version and one flash version, you'll develop just the non-flash version to keep the widest compatibility.

Thus new development will be more often than not a non-flash enabled version, which makes flash less irrelevant, which decreases market demand for flash, which decreases the resistance to non-flash enabled devices, which increases adoption of non-flash enabled devices in the market, which makes the decision to develop for non-flash enabled site even more important, and the feedback loop continues until flash is entirely obsoleted or relegated to niche market.

Hmm. Interesting that they don't count android devices as linux devices. Android is built on Linux. Gee. Doesn't that mean that it is a linux device? It's amazing how when you play with numbers you get it look in your favor. Apple sure loves to make people think that they are the greatest thing in the world. Sorry. I don't buy it.

Hmm. Interesting that they don't count android devices as linux devices. Android is built on Linux. Gee. Doesn't that mean that it is a linux device? It's amazing how when you play with numbers you get it look in your favor. Apple sure loves to make people think that they are the greatest thing in the world. Sorry. I don't buy it.

FYI, most servers on the internet today are Linux servers.

Servers don't browse, they serve pages; clients browse.

So for what it's worth, these statistics refer to Web clients.

As for Android being Linux-based (or is it Java?) so be it, count it in; only by the same token you would have to add iOS to all the flavours of Mac OS, in which case the chasm widens.

Oh wait: as per August's figures, even the combined figures for Linux and Android still fall below iOS as a standalone platform.

Hmm. Interesting that they don't count android devices as linux devices. Android is built on Linux. Gee. Doesn't that mean that it is a linux device? It's amazing how when you play with numbers you get it look in your favor. Apple sure loves to make people think that they are the greatest thing in the world. Sorry. I don't buy it.

FYI, most servers on the internet today are Linux servers.

FYI: For every hosted service that is running Linux you probably have 100,000 Windows users, on the Internet. It's life.

Because iOS's web browser account for more than 30% of mobile browsing market, which is large and getting larger by the minute. Everyone want to develop for mobile market to maintain relevance. Since iOS account for a huge chunk of mobile market, you don't want to develop your product that can't be seen by that huge chunk. And you don't want to do things twice by developing one non-flash version and one flash version, you'll develop just the non-flash version to keep the widest compatibility.

Thus new development will be more often than not a non-flash enabled version, which makes flash less irrelevant, which decreases market demand for flash, which decreases the resistance to non-flash enabled devices, which increases adoption of non-flash enabled devices in the market, which makes the decision to develop for non-flash enabled site even more important, and the feedback loop continues until flash is entirely obsoleted or relegated to niche market.

Oh really? Flash is obsolete? Hmm. Still see it all over the web. Oh wait, you don't notice it because you don't have it.

Flash is a medium to expand the capabilities of the browser beyond popping up video and photos and maybe a sound or too. HTML5 has it's place, and it's great, but there are things that it just won't do and some that it doesn't do effectively. If you did professional web development for a living, you'd know that there are somethings that flash does a better job on and others that are best left to Javascript/HTML. I do not create an entire website in flash. And I hate websites that are completely flash, but some elements on a website might have Flash. (Not advertisements, btw. I hate those just as much as everyone else).

Adobe is working on adding accelerated 3D capabilities to flash. HTML5/Javascript definitely won't do that effectively. Maybe in the future it could be expanded to add more functionality, but it may take another decade.

Sorry to say this, but Steve Jobs can't kill Flash just by saying he won't allow it on his devices. He doesn't have that much of the market. And many of the people that I know have chosen android over iOS because it promised Flash. Adobe delivered. It's still beta, but it's impressive even on a single core 650mhz phone.

Hmm. Interesting that they don't count android devices as linux devices. Android is built on Linux. Gee. Doesn't that mean that it is a linux device? It's amazing how when you play with numbers you get it look in your favor. Apple sure loves to make people think that they are the greatest thing in the world. Sorry. I don't buy it.

FYI, most servers on the internet today are Linux servers.

Because you're an Apple hater who likes to join and post on Apple centric sites you didn't notice that this report was not from Apple. And I guess you also didn't notice that Android is far behind Windows, OS X, iOS, Linux in the pecking order of web presence with a .2 percent. So ad Linux's .85 to Android's .2 and you get 1.05 which is still behind iOS's 1.13. To put it another way iOS tops Linux and Android combined in web presence. Take away Linux and iOS has over five times the web presence of Android. Fun facts that you conveniently ignored if you even read the article which you didn't.

Hmm. Interesting that they don't count android devices as linux devices. Android is built on Linux. Gee. Doesn't that mean that it is a linux device? It's amazing how when you play with numbers you get it look in your favor. Apple sure loves to make people think that they are the greatest thing in the world. Sorry. I don't buy it.

FYI, most servers on the internet today are Linux servers.

it should be said that there is more web client activity based on darwin/mach (which covers all of apples OSes since return of SJ) than there are OSes based on linux. Which is both impressive and sad at the same time. sad that darwin/mach has been around for a long time and should have more percentage (not just between linux based but against MS products too), but impressive considering how short a time iphone,ipad, ios has been out!

Oh really? Flash is obsolete? Hmm. Still see it all over the web. Oh wait, you don't notice it because you don't have it.

Flash is a medium to expand the capabilities of the browser beyond popping up video and photos and maybe a sound or too. HTML5 has it's place, and it's great, but there are things that it just won't do and some that it doesn't do effectively. If you did professional web development for a living, you'd know that there are somethings that flash does a better job on and others that are best left to Javascript/HTML. I do not create an entire website in flash. And I hate websites that are completely flash, but some elements on a website might have Flash. (Not advertisements, btw. I hate those just as much as everyone else).

Adobe is working on adding accelerated 3D capabilities to flash. HTML5/Javascript definitely won't do that effectively. Maybe in the future it could be expanded to add more functionality, but it may take another decade.

Sorry to say this, but Steve Jobs can't kill Flash just by saying he won't allow it on his devices. He doesn't have that much of the market. And many of the people that I know have chosen android over iOS because it promised Flash. Adobe delivered. It's still beta, but it's impressive even on a single core 650mhz phone.

Because iOS's web browser account for more than 30% of mobile browsing market, which is large and getting larger by the minute. Everyone want to develop for mobile market to maintain relevance. Since iOS account for a huge chunk of mobile market, you don't want to develop your product that can't be seen by that huge chunk. And you don't want to do things twice by developing one non-flash version and one flash version, you'll develop just the non-flash version to keep the widest compatibility.

Thus new development will be more often than not a non-flash enabled version, which makes flash less irrelevant, which decreases market demand for flash, which decreases the resistance to non-flash enabled devices, which increases adoption of non-flash enabled devices in the market, which makes the decision to develop for non-flash enabled site even more important, and the feedback loop continues until flash is entirely obsoleted or relegated to niche market.

Maybe some sites that want to attract mobile browsers specifically will spend money to switch.

But most sites can't justify huge expenses when things already work well for 95% of their customers.

Maybe some sites that want to attract mobile browsers specifically will spend money to switch.

But most sites can't justify huge expenses when things already work well for 95% of their customers.

5% of traffic doesn't mean only 5% of customers, and even if it does, 5% of customers doesn't mean 5% of purchases.

It's all depending on the customer the site is catering to, some may find it unnecessary, but some others may find it essential.

Then there's the "latest trend" factor you have to consider. Most serious business website will refresh their site periodically. If flash's future is somewhat in doubt, people will err on the side of caution by seriously consider the platform that's not in doubt, which is HTML5.

Hmm. Interesting that they don't count android devices as linux devices. Android is built on Linux. Gee. Doesn't that mean that it is a linux device? It's amazing how when you play with numbers you get it look in your favor. Apple sure loves to make people think that they are the greatest thing in the world. Sorry. I don't buy it.

Oh really? Flash is obsolete? Hmm. Still see it all over the web. Oh wait, you don't notice it because you don't have it.

Flash is a medium to expand the capabilities of the browser beyond popping up video and photos and maybe a sound or too. HTML5 has it's place, and it's great, but there are things that it just won't do and some that it doesn't do effectively. If you did professional web development for a living, you'd know that there are somethings that flash does a better job on and others that are best left to Javascript/HTML. I do not create an entire website in flash. And I hate websites that are completely flash, but some elements on a website might have Flash. (Not advertisements, btw. I hate those just as much as everyone else).

Adobe is working on adding accelerated 3D capabilities to flash. HTML5/Javascript definitely won't do that effectively. Maybe in the future it could be expanded to add more functionality, but it may take another decade.

Sorry to say this, but Steve Jobs can't kill Flash just by saying he won't allow it on his devices. He doesn't have that much of the market. And many of the people that I know have chosen android over iOS because it promised Flash. Adobe delivered. It's still beta, but it's impressive even on a single core 650mhz phone.

Oh really? Flash is obsolete? Hmm. Still see it all over the web. Oh wait, you don't notice it because you don't have it.

Flash is a medium to expand the capabilities of the browser beyond popping up video and photos and maybe a sound or too. HTML5 has it's place, and it's great, but there are things that it just won't do and some that it doesn't do effectively. If you did professional web development for a living, you'd know that there are somethings that flash does a better job on and others that are best left to Javascript/HTML. I do not create an entire website in flash. And I hate websites that are completely flash, but some elements on a website might have Flash. (Not advertisements, btw. I hate those just as much as everyone else).

Adobe is working on adding accelerated 3D capabilities to flash. HTML5/Javascript definitely won't do that effectively. Maybe in the future it could be expanded to add more functionality, but it may take another decade.

Sorry to say this, but Steve Jobs can't kill Flash just by saying he won't allow it on his devices. He doesn't have that much of the market. And many of the people that I know have chosen android over iOS because it promised Flash. Adobe delivered. It's still beta, but it's impressive even on a single core 650mhz phone.

If you read my post carefully instead of jumping to conclusions, I never said Flash is already obsolete. I said it's going to get obsoleted when new development projects choose to avoid the risk by minimizing flash content, thus decreasing it's relevance.

Yes, I don't have flash on my smartphone, but that's not because I'm an iPhone user. I have an Android phone, the HTC Eris Droid. I haven't heard any plans to update it with 2.2 yet. So not having Flash is not an experience isolated to iOS users, it's shared by a good chunk of Android users too. Since nobody from Android camp had complained about lack of flash on Android when this spat first came out, I seriously doubt the validity of the claim that flash is an essential part of full internet experience. So in response to your first statement, if you don't have a newest Android phone with 2.2 on it, or one that's updated recently, YOU DIDN'T NOTICE IT EITHER.

I as a consumer prefer a seamless experience when consuming information on the web whenever I try to access it. Although only a small amount of my total consumption is on my iphone, I tend to want to view similar sites on my iphone as I do from my mac at home and on my windows pc at work. If a website is incompatible with my iphone and as a result I can not access it when mobile, I will find a competitor that is. Then when I go back to my mac or pc, I will access that competitor for consistency. In this way, flash's incompatibility with almost all (except android 2.2) mobile devices can have a much larger impact than on just the small mobile browsing market (2.6% according to netmarketshare).

Edit: Also according to netmarketshare (the website this discussion was originally based on) Android 2.2 makes up only 0.03% of web browsing, meaning the other 0.17% that make up other versions of Android are in the same boat as ios devices: without flash.

How will they kill Flash if so few people browse the web with Apple products?

If your post is serious, then you arent understand how technology works. For example, how did serial and parallel ports go away when Apple dropped them in favour of USB? Others followed suit because it was the became the only sensible choice. Right now you have only one version of one mobile OS that can play 10.1 and even that isnt even available for all devices that run Android 2.2. To make matters worse, all modern mobile OSes do run modern, open webcode that can do many of the things that people have been using Flash for years on the desktop. Most notably video playback, which is much more efficient from the browser or from a dedicated app. This is a real issue for Adobe. It, in itself, wont kill Flash, but it will chip away at Flashs percentage of use for such services.

Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"

You say that like it's not impressive, it's actually quite good. That low number is one of the reasons why companies are competing so heavily in the mobile market, there is still a lot of room for growth.

Hmm. Interesting that they don't count android devices as linux devices. Android is built on Linux. Gee. Doesn't that mean that it is a linux device? It's amazing how when you play with numbers you get it look in your favor. Apple sure loves to make people think that they are the greatest thing in the world. Sorry. I don't buy it.

FYI, most servers on the internet today are Linux servers.

You probably mean UNIX server not Linux server, wich is like OS X or iOS a UNIX derivate.